cuahuitl (FCbk8f26r)

This iconographic example, featuring part of a tree (cuahuitl) is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making potential comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the keywords chosen by the team behind the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss. This example shows a large branch or a tree trunk with the smaller branches cut off hitting the top of a man’s head. The person who is hitting him with the wood is not shown. But the man is deceased (eyes are closed) and blood splatters from the site of contact out over his black hair. His skin is brown. He wears a white loincloth, only visible at the waistband. His hands are tied with a rope or cord (mecatl), which suggests that he was tied before he was struck, and this was apparently an execution. The contextualizing image sustains this, as he appears between two noble rulers (tlatoque, or tlahtoqueh, with the glottal stops), who are both seated on woven thrones (icpalli) and who have speech scrolls coming from their mouths. Speech is a sign of authority, and so they likely ordered his death.